“Your last day at the company”: Twitter lays off thousands of employees

Twitter fired half of its workforce via resignation emails. Due to the company’s uncertain direction of travel, some advertisers are currently turning away from the platform.

Now it’s official: Around 50 percent of Twitter employees are no longer employed. The day before, the new CEO Elon Musk announced that he would inform the workforce about the upcoming layoffs via email.

Twitter employee fired via resignation emails

The company kept its word. The affected employees received an email with the subject “Your role on Twitter”. Various media published the exact wording:

Today is your last working day in our company. However, you will continue to be employed by Twitter and will receive compensation and benefits until your departure on January 4, 2023.

The short message service cited efforts to improve the health of the company as the reason for the downsizing: “We regret to inform you that your role on Twitter has been affected,” the letter said. It is also said that these decisions are never easy.

Elon Musk is scrapping entire teams

According to the mail, a ban on dismissal applies to the employees concerned until the beginning of January. In addition, the relevant employees’ access to the Twitter systems will be disabled.

The workforce, which last consisted of 7,500 employees, was halved as a result of the wave of layoffs. A report by The Verge according to the measure, entire teams lost their existence.

The areas of product trust and safety, politics, communication, tweet curation, ethical AI and machine learning are particularly affected. The data science and research teams as well as social commitment and accessibility no longer exist either.

Twitter resignation emails come just ahead of US midterm elections

As the head of the department for safety and integrity, Yoel Roth, a report by the news agency Reuters said 15 percent of the staff on the Trust and Safety team had been laid off.

This is particularly worrying in view of the upcoming US midterm elections, because this team in particular is responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation and harmful content. However, Twitter’s new CEO Elon Musk also has one tweet ready:

Again, to be crystal clear, Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged.

In fact, we have actually seen hateful speech at times this week declined *below* our prior norms, contrary to what you may read in the press.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022

Twitter employees call termination emails a “shit show”

How dissatisfied both the employees affected by the layoffs and the remaining ones are is currently echoing from all corners. “Now the post is on,” said a Twitter employee The Verge The dismissal process is an absolute “shit show”. The people affected are venting their frustration.

I’m also consciously uncoupled from Twitter. It’s a weird day, people on either side of the 50% aren’t sure whether to be grateful or gutted. What I know is how honored I am to have spent time with wonderful people who show an unprecedented level of care for each other.

— Tony Haile (@arctictony) November 4, 2022

Those affected want to defend themselves with class action lawsuits

Even before the official termination emails were sent, some employees already knew that their time in the company was over. They suddenly lost access to their work accounts. Musk also had some offices closed early.

Some employees joined forces to file a class action lawsuit against the social media platform. The accusation: The group did not inform the affected employees early enough about the end of their employment.

However, the official employment relationship cited in the resignation emails aligns with the collective layoff notice period under US federal and state law.

Advertisers and the UN are turning their backs

As the daily News reported that the takeover by Musk is also unsettling the platform’s advertising partners. Both Volkswagen and US rival General Motors do not want to place any more advertising on the social media service for the time being.

Besides that also seem the UN to consider the direction of travel of Twitter to be too uncertain. The United Nations is currently evaluating its participation in the platform. They are in contact with Twitter and are waiting for answers to “a few questions”.

The company has not yet issued an official statement on the cancellation emails. However, the group’s communications department was also almost completely dissolved.

Also interesting: